So That’s Where Muntz Has Been This Whole Time
- Carl and Russell arrive at a cave, escorted by the dog pack. Who’s inside? That’s right—the dogs’ master. He spies Carl’s house and erupts into laughter. Anybody who would travel by floating house surely couldn’t be hunting after the same exotic creature that he is. Gee, who do we know that was hunting exotic creatures in South America?
- The pack’s master emerges from the shadows and Carl I.D.s him immediately. It’s the explorer, Charles Muntz! That dude must be, like, 100 years old by now.
- Carl is giddy. He tells Muntz that he and his wife were totally Team Muntz. Russell, meanwhile, has no idea who the heck this old guy is.
- Muntz invites Carl and Russell to join him and his dogs on his airship, The Spirit of Adventure, and tells the pack that Carl and Russell aren’t intruders; they’re their guests. Carl parks his house next to Muntz’s dirigible and heads onboard.
- Meanwhile, the other dogs make Dug wear the Cone of Shame for losing Kevin. Poor Dug.
- Inside the Spirit of Adventure, while the dogs prepare dinner, Muntz takes Carl and Russell on a tour. It’s like a natural history museum in there. Artifacts and animal skeletons are everywhere.
- Over dinner, Muntz tells Carl that he misses the States, but he can’t go back until he finds the beast he’s been hunting so he can clear his name. As Muntz shows Carl his creature-hunting paraphernalia, you can practically see the light bulb go off over Carl’s head. Muntz is hunting Kevin.
- Russell’s not so quick on the uptake. He immediately starts talking about his new bird friend, Kevin, and how much she digs chocolate. Carl tries to get Russell to shut up about Kevin.
- Suddenly, the tone changes. Things get sinister. Muntz starts telling Carl about the other people who have passed through there, and how they all had good stories for why they were there, like a botanist cataloguing plants.
- As Muntz rants, he knocks sets of helmets and goggles on the ground, and we get the sense that Muntz didn’t believe these other people’s stories—and that he played a part in their disappearances.
- We also get the idea that Muntz thinks Carl’s lying about wanting to go to Paradise Falls, and that he thinks Carl is after his prized creature.
- Carl says it’s time for them to jet. Muntz insists that they stay. They have so much more to talk about. Yikes.
- Just then, we hear Kevin call from outside. Carl winces. Muntz looks out the window and spies Kevin on the roof of Carl’s house. Double yikes.
- Carl and Russell make a break for it, the dog pack hot on their trail. Dug, chillin’ in front of the airship in his Cone of Shame exile, tells them which way to run. Carl grabs the house’s tether, clips in Russell, and they’re off.
- Kevin swoops in and Carl and Russell jump on his back. They ride him like Seabiscuit. Dug stays behind to run interference between Carl and Russell and the pack.
- When they encounter a steep ravine, Carl grabs Dug, and then Kevin—aided by the force of the house itself—pulls them across the river below. Half of the dogs fall into the water and, fittingly, dogpaddle away. The others pups stop short of the edge and retreat.
- Carl, Russell, Kevin, and Dug finally get a breather.
- In the chaos, Kevin took a pretty gnarly dog bite to the leg. Her kids call out; she replies then collapses. Carl agrees to help Kevin get home. That old softie.